Dry, Classic, and Debonair

Sunday, November 22In and Out Martini

Monday, November 23
James Bond Martini

Over the last weekend, I had my kids here, soccer game for my older son (they won! the El Cajon AYSO champs for the Under-12 boys division!), party at a friend’s house on Saturday night, brought two dishes for the potluck and of course ended up rushed and running late, which I HATE doing. I can live with other people being late (I’m used to it, for some reason almost every guy I’ve dated had a tendency to run late), but ME being late? No. Not cool. So I turn into a little stress puppy and am not happy with myself. Did have a great time at the party and got to try a delicious (straight) rum from Columbia which was quite different and delicious, as well as getting to sample a vermouth I’d never had before. It was a $30 bottle of vermouth, quite unheard of compared to my usual Noilly Prat or Martini & Rossi varieties. It was quite good. I have to get name of it and share it with you, it was definitely different and unique. My consumption at the party definitely ruled out a blog martini for Saturday night.

I went to brunch on Sunday morning, met up with my brother and his girlfriend, and my kids got to eat for free, which was awesome since they eat next to nothing anyway. If you live in the San Diego area, try out Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn for a delicious brunch, quite the spread, including champagne/mimosas. Headed home after that and my younger son had a friend come over from about 1 pm until 8 pm for a long playdate. I’m surprised I didn’t drink both of these martinis (and then some!) that evening. His friend, Dylan, was quite the happy 8-year-old, playing on the Wii with my 8-year-old, with my older son taking the occasional turn on the games or doing some homework. His mom was a very sweet woman, first time I’d met her, and I have an automatic soft spot for any divorced woman who has custody of her kids most of the time. I have mine half the time and I’m very thankful that my ex has them the other half – both for their sake in having more time with a dad than a lot of kids, and for mine, for the sake of my sanity.

Once Dylan went home, I was in the mood for a nice, simple martini. I skimmed ahead in The Martini Book through the ones on my list (Sue and I divide them up every week or so, a dozen or more drinks at a time) until I found one that was right up my alley. The In and Out Martini – 7 parts vodka, lemon twist, 2 blue-cheese stuffed olives, and dry vermouth. Swirl the dry vermouth into a chilled martini glass and dump it out, then pour in the vodka and add the olives and lemon twist. Yeah. That works. Ideally I should have paired this with an In ‘N Out Burger just for the sake of homonym happiness. Or for the sake of my stomach. I think I ended up having my kids’ leftovers for dinner to go with the martini – Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese and chicken nuggets. My rating for dinner? A zero. The In and Out Martini? 4.5 stars. Of course I liked it, I think you’ve figured out how my tastes run by now. Could have skipped the trouble of the lemon twist, though, to be honest. Just give me the vodka, a wisp of vermouth, and a couple of olives and I’m happy.

On Monday morning, I had a job interview. And also started a temp job later that morning. It ended up being kind of a stressful day. The interview was frustrating because I’ve been out of work for five months and have had a hell of a time even getting an interview for something remotely close to what I used to do, let alone close to my old salary. Unfortunately I work in a very niche-specific job and the software and systems experience I was hoping to gain on my last two jobs never materialized because both companies went bankrupt before they could implement the type of system I need to learn. It’s a little hard to face becoming a dinosaur in a matter of only a few years. And now I can’t get a job even as an apprentice to learn the damn software because everyone wants someone who already has experience. Typical story – can’t get the experience without the job and can’t get the job without the experience – yet I didn’t think I’d be dealing with this crap at age 46. And now when I’m interviewing for an administrative assistant job that I’m perfectly capable of and would be more than happy with, I can’t convince someone they want to hire me because I’m “overqualified”. I hate to say it, but we’re in a damn recession and I doubt I’m the only one out there who is looking for a position they are “overqualified” for. Maybe just me and the other 12% or so of the unemployed people in California? Would I be happy making less than half of what I used to make? Well, when it’s double what I’m getting on unemployment … uh, yes. I think I’d be pretty stoked. I might even have a shot at keeping my house. At any rate, I left the interview with mixed feelings, mostly the feeling of frustration. I drove across town and started at a temp job that I’m very grateful for and I intend to show it by busting my ass there, same as I would a permanent job. Needless to say by the time I was home with my kids, I needed a martini.

Goddamnit, will someone fetch Cathy a martini?

I opted for the James Bond Martini. This was one of the first recipes I made out of this book when I got it well over a year ago, just because I wanted to know what Sean, Roger, Timothy, Pierce, and Daniel (and whichever Bonds I’m forgetting – George Lazenby, I think) were so enamored with. I should have these more often so that I can finally get that bottle of Lillet blanc out of my fridge, where it takes up valuable door space. 6 parts gin, 2 part vodka, 1 part Lillet blanc, lemon twist for garnish. It definitely isn’t your typical dry martini, the Lillet blanc is a lot like a sweeter white wine, but the small proportion to the with the gin and the vodka isn’t overpowering. It’s a very good cocktail, I will have these again. More appeal for me than a straight gin martini would be, and I just realized there is no vermouth in it. I guess the Lillet blanc is the stand-in for vermouth, although the taste is rather different. I’d give this a 4.25 rating, and have calculated at the ratio of 1 part Lillet blanc per drink, it should only take me 50 more of them to finish off that pesky space-consuming bottle. What was that about my liver?